United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives
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History, Art & Archives of the U.S. House of Representatives

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by Art on July 6, 2016

Before air conditioning, portable, collapsible, and durable handheld fans were a necessity in the hot months. For congressional candidates, summertime made fans the perfect giveaway at parades, rallies, and “any kind of places where people congregate regularly in hot weather,” as one proponent noted. The House Collection contains breezemakers from a century’s worth of sweltering campaigns.

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Categories: Art & Artifacts, Minorities in Congress

Through Her Lens

by History on May 18, 2016

With a bounce in her step and a camera in hand, Dolly Seelmeyer walked through the halls of the United States Capitol, from 1972 to 2004, as the first female House photographer, ready to prove she could do anything a male photographer could do—“and do it better.”

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Categories: Oral History, Minorities in Congress, People

Edition for Educators—Asian Pacific Heritage Month

by History on May 10, 2016

Norman Mineta spent nearly four years of his childhood in internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II. First elected in 1974, Mineta served 11 terms in the House of Representatives and worked to hold the legislative process accountable and address the mistakes of the past. Learn more about the efforts and accomplishments of Mineta and other Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Congress for Asian Pacific Heritage Month.

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Categories: Education, Minorities in Congress

Rediscovering Rainey's Reign

by History on April 27, 2016

It’s unclear what prompted Representative Luke Poland of Vermont to leave the rostrum that day and yield the gavel, as the 43rd Congress (1873–1875) debated an Indian appropriations bill. But what is clear is that he set in motion a series of events that seemed the very culmination of the Civil War. When Poland stepped down, Joseph Hayne Rainey of South Carolina—a former slave who had once been impressed into service by the Confederacy before escaping to Bermuda—mounted the Speaker’s rostrum, grasped the gavel, and set Capitol Hill abuzz.

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Categories: Minorities in Congress, People

Esther and Ellen

by Art on March 30, 2016

In 1910, two women artists doubled the number of paintings by women in the House of Representatives. One, Ellen Day Hale, was highly accomplished, and the other, Esther Edmonds, was an emerging talent at the start of her career.

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Categories: Art & Artifacts, Minorities in Congress

Framing Women Members in Photographs

by Archives on March 21, 2016

Winifred Claire Stanley
News photographs often depicted early female Members of Congress as homemakers and glamour girls rather than politicians, framing the public’s view of their Representatives.

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Categories: Art & Artifacts, Minorities in Congress, Photography
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Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov